Earlier this year, Sony threw a surprise out of left field our way when it announced that it was remaking the PlayStation 2 classic Shadow of the Colossus from the ground up for the PlayStation 4. That’s a truly daunting task, especially considering the audience that has grown with the cult classic.
But the developers at Bluepoint Games certainly seem to be up to said task, and today posted a new video journal explaining the development process that’s going into the remake, which is scheduled to release sometime next year. We’re sure to get a closer look at the game come next week, when the PlayStation Experience event rolls around. For now, though, you can check out the video below.
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In it, team members Mark Skelton, Marco Thrush and Peter Dalton talk about the breathtaking cinematic opening, which it perfectly recaptured for the vision of the new build.
You really see what kind of work the developer put into this new version, while staying true to what Team ICO created years ago with the original one. “The large, the vastness” of the environment has been happily recaptured, and reanimated to “improve the fidelity of the animations.” It’s truly something – and leaves us drooling for the final release.
But that’s not all. Bluepoint also worked closely with JAPAN Studio to improve the game’s controls, as noted in the blog entry below.
Streamlined controls make it easier to play
Bluepoint Games hasn’t just settled on a visual make over, either. The controls have cleverly tweaked to improve the gameplay experience.
The PS4’s touch pad handily lets you bring up a map, while jump has been moved to the X button instead of the triangle button. The dodge roll is also now mapped to the circle button, making it easier to deploy than the previous R1 + triangle combo.
That doesn’t mean everything about the game has vastly changed – the grab button is still situated on the right trigger, for example – but these improvements should certainly make the game more approachable.
We’ll see how the final game fares when Shadow of the Colossus arrives on February 6, 2018 for PlayStation 4.
